I don't think the aliens in Plan 9 were from "Planet 9." They were from "Space Station 7." I would have thought the nickname "Planet Nine" was evocative of "Planet Ten" from Buckaroo Bonzai. (Back when Buckaroo Bonzai was written, Pluto was considered the ninth planet, so this further one would have been tenth.)

My guess, is that since the original Planet 9 - Pluto - was unplaneted (my word) a few years ago, and Neptune is still Planet 8, it was (is) natural to give this the placeholder name Planet 9, until the discoverers name it (as is the custom, I believe).Also, many years ago, when looking for a planet beyond the hypothetical (at that time) 9th, the hypothetical 10th planet was called Planet X. (X as in unknown, and also the Roman numeral for 10).

Also, many years ago, when looking for a planet beyond the hypothetical (at that time) 9th, the hypothetical 10th planet was called Planet X. (X as in unknown, and also the Roman numeral for 10).

Long before that, as far back as the 1830's multiple planets beyond Uranus were proposed as solutions for unaccounted perturbations in its orbit. After Neptune was discovered in 1848 and its mass and position calculated to be insufficient to satisfy the Uranus problem astronomers continued to search for a trans-Neptunian planet. It was Percival Lowell, the guy who attributed the "canals" of mars to the labors of intelligent life, who first coined the term Planet X, which designated an undiscovered ninth planet, subsequently identified in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh and named Pluto.

As it turned out the much of the problem with the orbit of Uranus was a consequence of miscalculations of its mass, which were resolved by the Voyager missions.

For the record, there are much, much worse movies than Plan 9 From Outer Space. Not saying Plan 9 is good - its terrible - but humanity's ability to make bad movies appears to be bottomless or, in some cases, pantsless.

For the record, there are much, much worse movies than Plan 9 From Outer Space. Not saying Plan 9 is good - its terrible...

It's not terrible, it's terribly funny. A movie with Tor Johnson and Dudley Manlove can't help but be comedy gold. They could just stand there and provoke paroxysms, but they speak lines! (Well, Tor doesn't speak, really. He mostly grunts in a Swedish accent.) Lines written by Edward D. Wood, Jr., the man who never pushed a noun against a verb and managed to make sense.

"Also, with what assumptions did they observe a coherent signal?"Orbital resonances of distant planetoids. Gravity applies an acceleration over billions of years and millions of orbits, and shapes the orbits until their shape, perihelion and aphelion aren't random. What is not random is signal (though you may be misinterpreting it).

On the topic of extra planets, I'm trying to recall any pop culture references to an extra planet that put it in a faraway orbit like this one is supposed to be. Generally, it seems the extra planet is hidden behind the sun, often in the same orbit as Earth but blocked off (Gor, Terra from Gamera vs. Guiron, heaven & hell in the Lexx universe). It makes the logistics easier. The only "out there" planets I can think of are from the anime Star Blazers which had Minerva and Brumas, but the first was destroyed by the time we get to see what's left of it and the second was a not much of anything used as a defensive outpost on the edge of the solar system.

(To address recent events, Star Blazers had minimal masturbatory value, at least in the English dub. The unedited Japanese version probably has significantly more "fan service" as you will, but I have not investigated the matter sufficiently, probably because I need to get on the Trump bandwagon first.)

Blogger Alex said...Is there any good science fiction novels with plots that take place on trans-Neptunian planets?

My first thought was The Forever War by Joe Haldeman which takes place, partially, on an asteroid or planet outside Neptune's orbit. Here's a list from Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_planets_of_the_Solar_System#Trans-Neptunian_planets

In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

Maybe the author of the article was missing some facts, but it seems hard to believe that they could calculate orbital resonances of the planetoids, yet not be able to nail down the orbital period of the planet closer than a factor of 2

The short monologue that Rutger Hauer gives as his character is dying is doubly incredible. First, it's incredible because it's an excellent performance and very moving. Second, it's incredible that it's so tremendously moving even though he's saying something so tremendously nerdy. Those are some well-written, well-performed sci-fi lines there.

It's physics and data gathered from telescopes.You start with protoplanets in a disk of gas and dust. Most of the material is in a plane, but as the planetoids form, the shapes of their orbits are random within the plane. All are elliptical (a circular orbit is a special case of an elliptical orbit). Now, a few billion years after the solar system was formed, the orbits of distant protoplanets aren't random. Some force must have made them non-random, some force that, over thousands of millions of years, has changed the paths of planetoids that weigh millions or billions or trillions of kilograms. "Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it."The external force is gravity from planet 9.This ain't rocket science.

In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

Maybe the author of the article was missing some facts, but it seems hard to believe that they could calculate orbital resonances of the planetoids, yet not be able to nail down the orbital period of the planet closer than a factor of 2

All they really know is that there is an object with a lot of mass effecting the orbits of lesser objects in its area. They can see the orbits of the planetoids and infer the rest.

Wonder if it has our name it? When will it brush by us? Or play billiards with our Moon. Could well be God's way of reminding us "Thou shall not place any gods before Me." A pity you didn't run any faster (away from NIMBY and the precautionary principle) to save yourself. A free market might well have saved us. Survival is directly proportional to the wealth and energy under an individual's, their family and their neighborhood's control Consider Bangladesh. I'd like to see the power of a sun in every pocket. Too bad the green's prevented that and killed us all.